Greetings BELOVED:PHYSICAL:
This week some of us are celebrating the half way point with GirlTrek…5 weeks down and 5 to go on the challenge to walk 5 days a week, 30 minutes a day, 10 weeks!When patterns are broken, new worlds emerge. – Tuli KupferbergLast week’s challenge for GirlTrek was to find a place you you had never walked such as a trail or a view like a lake and it would feel like a mini-vacation trek.

So I pulled up Google maps as instructed by Morgan (one of the founders of Girls Trek) and found the John Yarborough Trail in Ft. Myers, FL! Who knew…?!!! And, just as described a scenic trail, awaited me. She also mentioned “Whatever you do this week, make one walk a special mini-vacation. Give yourself permission to SLOOOOOOW DOWNNNN and take in the glory of all of the goodness around you. That’s what a vacation’s all about.” I have included three pictures from my walk (as evidence, lol, also, because the last picture talks about alligators come out at dawn and dusk and I was out walking at dusk so, kicked it into another gear to get out of the “new” place I have discovered and will go back to again!

“The heavens proclaim the glory of God.
The skies display his craftsmanship.
2 Day after day they continue to speak;
night after night they make him known.
3 They speak without a sound or word;
their voice is never heard.[a]
4 Yet their message has gone throughout the earth,
and their words to all the world.

God has made a home in the heavens for the sun.
5 It bursts forth like a radiant bridegroom after his wedding.
It rejoices like a great athlete eager to run the race.
6 The sun rises at one end of the heavens
and follows its course to the other end.
Nothing can hide from its heat.

TAKE THE GLOBAL VIEW – Keep calm by focusing on your total net worth, not the changes in each holding. Before you buy a stock or mutual fund check whether it overlaps with what you already own.

HEDGE YOUR BETS – Never keep all your eggs in one basket. No matter how sure you are that an investment is a winner, don’t put more than 10% of your portfolio in it.

WEIGH WHAT THEY SAY – Before trying any investment strategy, gather objective evidence on he performance of others who have used it.

HOPE FOR THE BEST – BUT EXPECT THE WORST – Every good investment performs poorly some of the time. Intelligent investors stick with solid companies that hit rough patches.

THE PAST IS NOT A PROLOGUE – Never buy a stock or mutual fund just because it has been going up. On Wall Street, what goes way up usually comes down with a sickening crunch.

From FORTUNE’s Annual Investment Guide

SPIRITUAL:
First back to last week’s overview of Matthew 5:3 (below). A Fast Wednesday friend contacted me to tell me how much she loves the beatitudes and summarized nicely our role/goal as the “poor in spirit:”

“Hi Debra, – I love the Beatitudes! To be in His Kingdom is to be truly happy. Our Humble service and devotion to God rather than our human accomplishments bring true happiness! Praise God that he led Mathew to preserve Christ sermon on the Mount, to teach us the essence of Christian living. Amen!”

(Matthew 5:3) 3 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Poor in Spirit means acknowledging God’s ownership of everything and that we are responsible to be good stewards of those things with which we have been blessed. Our attitude should be one of faithful servants and not one of pride, envy, lust, and gluttony. We are called to use what we have and are given to provide for our self and serve God’s people.

This week, I want to draw our attention to Galatians 6:7-10 with a special focus on verse 9…

Galatians 6:7-10, New International Reader’s Version (NIRV), 7 Don’t be fooled. You can’t outsmart God. A man gathers a crop from what he plants. 8 Some people plant to please their sinful nature. From that nature they will harvest death. Others plant to please the Holy Spirit. From the Spirit they will harvest eternal life. 9 Let us not become tired of doing good. At the right time we will gather a crop if we don’t give up. 10 So when we can do good to everyone, let us do it. Let us make a special point of doing good to those who belong to the family of believers.

We all become weary from time to time, believe it or not! Being weary was explained to me recently as being tired spiritually and not necessarily physically. When you are weary, you have to take a break and regroup spiritually because just normal rest will not take away your weariness. You can go on a vacation for a week or two but if you are weary, you will come back weary…so slow down and exhale and take care of your weary self!

Prayer for Fast Wednesdays, May 2, 2012: Father, we thank you for being here on earth for such a time as this. Help us to take the time to heal, mend and take care of ourselves so that we do not become weary and lose our footing. Allow us to have friends and places where we can go and “take off our masks” and love ourselves so that we are energized and refreshed to “finish our race, strongly.” In Jesus name, Amen!

Love, Joy and Peace…Debra J Fuller Ellis

Reminder & for those of you just joining us either by contacting me or I personally added you: The purpose of Fast Wednesdays is to draw near to God on this specific day of the week fasting and praying in whatever manner the Holy Spirit is leading you as sisters in Christ…some have fasted from social media, coffee, or observed a traditional fast with no eating from sunrise to sunset with only liquids for the day, no deserts, etc. I know many of us for various reasons participate every week but in different manners. This has still been beneficial and the sisterhood continues to grow!

The key ingredient is that we are doing this together as sisters, of all ages, in the Lord both chronologically and spiritually in accordance to: Titus 2 — A God-Filled Life 3-5Guide older women into lives of reverence so they end up as neither gossips nor drunks, but models of goodness. By looking at them, the younger women will know how to love their husbands and children, be virtuous and pure, keep a good house, be good wives. We don’t want anyone looking down on God’s Message because of their behavior.